1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a relocatable wall mounting system making use of a half-clip with the half-clip being driven into the edge of a wallboard panel and with the half-clip acting in conjunction with a second half-clip mounted adjacent thereto to form a spring for insertion into a slot in a support member thereby attaching the wallboard panels to the stud.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Many wall mounting systems have been devised making use of a wide variation of systems for attaching wallboard panels to studs or the like in the construction of a finished wall surface. Of course, the more common of these is the simple nailing or screwing of the wallboard panel to the stud. The problem with this system of attachment, however, is that it requires finishing over the attachment device and also prevents or makes impossible its usage with wallboard panels having highly decorative prefinished surfaces, such as vinyl clad wallboard. Recognizing this need, the industry provided a number of systems for making the attachment of highly decorative wallboard panels to stud systems. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 1,974,819 has a pronged insert which is inserted into the side of a wallboard and which has a shoulder on the back of the wallboard which slides into and engages a second device which is mechanically attached to the stud by screws or the like. This system is particularly undesirable because it requires an extra part which must be attached to a stud and also is very time consuming in requiring a connection of the two parts as well as in requiring attachment of the second device to the support structure.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 1,815,065 used a slotted stud with a clamp within the slot but once the T-grip which held the wallboard was inserted into the clamp it was locked therein and could not be removed for relocation of the wall. Still other prior systems, like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,059,483, use two half-clips each attached to the back of a wallboard, but require a third half-clip to be inserted entirely through the wallboard at the mating surfaces thereof to spread apart the clip and make it useful for engaging a slotted stud. This system is not desirable in that the attachment to the wallboard defaces a decorative surface on the wallboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,697,456 uses a pronged insert for jamming into a board edge, but the projection therefrom is merely a straight flange which must be attached to the support structure by conventional means such as nails or screws. This is obviously time consuming and expensive and limits relocation of the wall without damage thereto. That product, however, is improved by a removable panel fastener such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,590, but here again, this panel fastener requires the nailing of the fastener to the stud in order to secure the wallboard to the stud and this is time consuming, costly, and does not provide for removability of the wall.
While the use of half-clips is not in itself new, the novel embodiment shown herein is an advance over prior uses of half-clips. For instance, in Canadian Pat. No. 465,785, half-clips attach to the back of the panels and are inserted into slots in a stud, but these clips require hemispherical inserts therein and require the use of a ball and socket-type joint for securing of the clip to the stud. Once the ball and socket type joint is inserted into a spring design in the slot in the stud, the system is locked in and this lack of removability severely limits the system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,575, however, uses an insert into the side of the wall panel to prevent lateral movement of the wall panel, but outward movement of the wall panel is prevented solely by trim material at the top and bottom of the wall panel. This results in an inferior attachment system that does not have sufficient attachment for many rigid wall systems.
While U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,941 uses two non-clipping inserts which mate together to hang into an opening of a slotted stud, this design requires the kerfing of the panel, a more expensive design than is necessary for the use of the product of this invention. Perhaps the previously most advanced design making the use of half-clips is U.S. Pat. No. 2,734,126 which uses only a single half-clip to attach to a slotted stud, but requires the attachment of the half-clip to the back of the wall panel thereby providing a system which defaces a decorative surface on the face of the wall panel thus producing a highly undesirable system from an aesthetic standpoint.
The new and novel design of this invention provides a system which attaches readily to the wallboard without any special design thereof and which readily mounts the wallboard onto a slotted stud without any other type of preparation. The system provides a mounted wall which is highly decorative and which is simple and easy in its construction. The system also has the very important feature of being removable and relocatable, thus enhancing its value.